How can your business be a part of this exciting FREE community event?

We need your help in making this event a success by providing free entertainment
and food for our community and the KPP families we serve. How can you help?

Event Day Donations AND/OR being a sponsor of key parts of the event by providing financial support.

Please fill out a sponsorship form (pdf below) and return it to us via mail or email.

We will feature your sponsorship on the main pavilion stage banner, the CCM website, Facebook event page and Facebook boosts reaching thousands in our area providing valuable exposure.

Showcase and shine! Meet our community face-to-face at your booth*.
Distribute brochures, business cards, promotional items and more. Be creative. Have fun!
*No “selling or requests” for funds of any type. This is a free community event.

January 22, 2018

Tabitha Johnston, Journal Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG — Kidz Power Pacs volunteers held hands and prayed in a giant circle Saturday morning, before beginning to pack food for over 900 children in Berkeley and Jefferson County.

Kidz Power Pacs connects with Berkeley and Jefferson County school counselors and teachers to find and feed children who are going without food over weekends and school breaks throughout the year. This initiative is one of many led by Community Combined Ministries, Inc., founded by Diana Wall after a mission trip showed her the needs in El Salvador were similar to those in the Eastern Panhandle.

“All of this is from donations around the county from individuals and businesses,” said volunteer of eight years Bev Yebernetsky. She said her husband, Greg, helps unload the trucks full of groceries into Eagle School Intermediate’s cafeteria every Friday night before the monthly event.

“It’s a great way to help a child who would otherwise be hungry on the weekend,” Yebernetsky said, mentioning her church, New Life Community Church, is one of about 35 who support the ministry. “A child from five years and up can do the packing. It’s only two hours on a Saturday morning once a month, or three hours on a Friday night once a month.”

“Our main focus is a community effort. We do it on Saturday specifically to encourage families to participate,” said CCM secretary and marketing coordinator Becky Fauble, mentioning none of the food is taken from food banks. “We keep consistent with kid-friendly foods, so a lot of our soups and raviolis are easy-open, because some kids don’t have a lot of parent help.”

“Our biggest need right now is prayer. We’re also seeking sponsors, volunteers or anyone who wants to hold a fundraiser,” said Valley View Chapel member Fauble, who has helped with the organization since it was founded 10 years ago. “Teaching our next generation the needs of others and getting them involved in our community is really important. Plus, when you serve you feel a lot of self-worth–children need that.”

“I asked around and put fliers up at school,” said Hedgesville High School senior and volunteer of five years Skyler Morrow, who packed boxes at the event with his mom, Barbara Morrow. He said his efforts seemed to have paid off, because he saw a few of his classmates helping at the event.

“If you can’t come Saturday, Fridays are phenomenal. We have a blast,” said Martinsburg Seventh-day Adventist Church member Melissa Clapper, who, with her husband Terry Clapper, has volunteered with KPP for two years. “We feel this is a very much-needed ministry in our community.

“Just get involved in the community. That helps everybody,” said Automated Mulching & Total Lawn Care owner Terry Clapper.

Volunteers can help the 501(c)3 nonprofit unload food that Friday at 4:30 p.m. and pack that food the next morning at 9 a.m.

“We’ve been doing this for 10 years now,” said Kidz Power Pacs Director Diana Wall, who founded the nonprofit with her husband in 2007. “My husband and I were in El Salvador helping other missionaries with feeding children and building churches and different things, and when we came back home, I talked with some local teachers who said the same needs were in our own backyard.”

“Many of the teachers were going in and feeding the children out of their own pockets,” Wall said, mentioning that all 39 public schools in Berkeley and Jefferson County are covered by CCM. “We feed an average of over 900 children now because of the love of the community.”

“We buy food that’s easy to open and prepare. Many of the children have to fix it for themselves, because the parents are at work and the kids have to look after themselves and their younger siblings,” Wall said, explaining CCM buys everything in bulk from local grocery stores and doesn’t take food from Mountaineer Food Bank, to avoid taking food away from the area’s other nonprofits.

“We have a lot of kids whose parents are in the home and still working to provide but falling short, and also single parents,” added Wall, mentioning that each monthly packing prepares about 4,000 packages. “Sadly, yes, we don’t try to focus on it because it is not the situation for all the kids we feed, but the opioid epidemic has increased the number of students as well.”

“We added several more schools this year, and one school instantly had 62 children identified, so we are searching for sponsors for each of those children,” Wall said, explaining that each sponsor gives $20 per month, which is enough to feed the child during weekends, holiday breaks and summer vacation.

CCM was accepted into West Virginia’s Neighborhood Investment Program last year, which allows the organization to give a $250 tax credit to every business or individual who donates $500 to the organization.

CCM recently started another ministry, King Foods, that accepts food stamps and allows people to order and buy discounted food through the organization online, over the phone or by mail. For more information about CCM, visit https://communitycombined.org/ or email communitycombinedwv@gmail.com.

Thank you for writing an article on the ministry. One correction: CCM covers 39 schools total between Berkeley and Jefferson County. CCM does not cover all the schools in both counties. 2 Shepherdtown schools are covered by caring cubcards and some in Berkeley County are covered by Backpack. No school is duplicated. A list of CCM schools can be found on their website.

]]>Jersey Mike’s of Charles Town and CCM have joined forces for the Annual “Day of Giving” to Fund Kidz Power Pacs!https://communitycombined.org/jersey-mikes-of-charles-town-annual-march-month-of-giving-to-fund-kidz-power-pacs/
Sun, 14 Jan 2018 11:19:09 +0000https://communitycombined.org/?p=2646

Food stock sent to local hungry children “an awesome act of kindness.”

By Jeff McCoy, Special to The Journal

MARTINSBURG – After witnessing the hardships of children in El Salvador in 2004 and 2005, Diana Wall and her husband Danny returned to Martinsburg with a heavy burden on their hearts for children that were hungry and in poverty.

Diana went into Burke Street School to see if there was a need there.

“I spoke with a couple of teachers there, and the stories they told me were the exact same thing that we were

[witnessing]

in El Salvador,” she said. Diana said she was moved by a story of one little girl that cut the liner of the pockets of her coat to slip in additional rolls of bread to take home.

The Walls decided to take matters into their own hands. They started by feeding 20 children at just one school in 2007. Today, they help more than 900 children per month in 30 schools located in Berkeley and Jefferson counties through Community Combined Ministries with a program called Kidz Power Pacs.

Many children in Berkeley and Jefferson counties receive food each Friday to take home to eat over the weekend. Then they return to school Monday for breakfast and lunch. Just in the last month, 30 new children were added to the roster for weekend food.

Teachers and staff at the schools identify children and families that are in need. This ensures that the food is going to those that would most benefit from it. After the parents sign a form, agreeing to receive it, the food is given out in a discreet way in order to not draw attention, or cause embarrassment to the students.

“If a family is really struggling, this is just something that we offer, another way of helping. Our poverty numbers are high here, so all students receive free lunch and free breakfast,” said Stephanie Schminkey a counselor at Eagle School Intermediate.

According to the federal poverty guidelines, a family of four making less than $24,250 is below the poverty line. In some cases, grandparents are now rising their grandchildren on a limited, retirement income. Other families, working two jobs, struggle with high rent and a raising cost of living. This sometimes affects a family’s food budget. In other cases, children are abused or neglected.

Moroe than 40 local churches help by sending volunteers or money or both. Other individual and business sponsors have also stepped in to help out financially. Kay Lewis, of State Farm Insurance, a long-term supporter, said: “Basically children are a passion of mine; and,knowing that children are out there, going hungry, is a little bit more than I can stand. And, this is one way I can affect the community. To think that a child is going to go home, all weekend, and not get a meal is unthinkable. I don’t think people realize how bad it is in this area. This is something I can impact and make a difference.”

The logistics for such an operation requires hundreds of volunteers, sponsors and donors, a 20- foot U-Haul truck, storage, countless bags and boxes, help from school teachers and counselors, thousands of man-hours and, of course, money.

Every detail is planned out. The ways in which the food is purchased, picked up, laid out, packed, counted, sorted and distributed have all been tested for the most efficiency. All food is purchased in bulk to make every penny count. Volunteers from Berkeley Community Pride recycle even the waste that is generated from all of the food’s cardboard packaging. The waste is hauled to Quad Graphics where it is shredded; and a check from the sale of the cardboard is sent back to Kidz Power Pacs. Over 100 people showed up to help on processing day.

Food is also distributed throughout the summer months to the same children. Diana Wall said that sometimes parents send a note in stating: “Please stop sending the bags home. We’re okay. Bless another child” at which point the food stops going to that family.

Schminkey added, “I think it’s a wonderful program. At this age level, the kids are very happy to receive, and are very thankful and appreciative. We are thankful for people like Diana and her organization to take the time to do this. That’s what I like. Here it is, if you want it, it’s here for you, it’s coming out of love and concern and care. We’re a school about kindness; that’s our theme this year, and this is such an awesome act of kindness.”

They not only help with food, but also are planning a Christmas party for Dec. 11. Wall said they are expecting as many as 300 children and are looking for volunteers and sponsor gifts. Community Combined Ministries can be reached at 304-268-8778.